


Doubt Cuts

by RectifiedPear



Series: Empowered [3]
Category: Balto (Movies)
Genre: Post-Canon, Short One Shot, Unresolved Tension, Wordcount: 500-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29801727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RectifiedPear/pseuds/RectifiedPear
Summary: "I was born a dreamerA wide-eyed believer in things unseenI was born a dreamerOh, say you believe in me"
Series: Empowered [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2108667
Kudos: 1





	Doubt Cuts

Steele was heralded, a brave malamute who had saved not only his owner's life, but Jenna's Rosie, and all the children. He walked among the town with a medal on his chest, freshly manicured nails, and a shiny smile from chewing so many bones he hardly kept his figure. He's already bored, though.

Dixie trips over herself lusting for him. Even Jenna moons and looks on, eyes like saucers. Sylvie is sleek and walking so her shoulders rub his. Females he's never seen before long to be with him. But it's Jenna he claims. She is a boring prize. 

“I owe you so much for what you've done.” She speaks, making little rolls of the rs as she speaks. “You saved my girl.” Her body is hot, close to his.

“Hm-hm-hm.” Steele eats a steak all by himself.

Jenna looks thin, like she's walked after him for years. 

It has been years, Steele realizes. Years and years and – where oh where is that dumb wolfdog anyway?

“Steeeeele.” Jenna croons and she is warm and musky, must be her time for the season. It's the same as always, and at first it feels good. Dixie, Sylvie, Jenna. Dixie cooing his name. Sylvie against him, trying to have pups but never doing so. Jenna cooing his name. It swaps, it changes. 

Where is Balto?

Where is Nome's savior? Wait – Steele finds his rut is tired and his shape is the same, he puts himself into pulling sleds and running. But no one wants to push him, no one wants to test his body. It's ten years later. There are new dogs. A siberian husky named Dusty wants him. Jenna is gone. Dixie is gone. Steele is still there, He feels older, more tired. He hates how his body moves and how he feels tired. 

So tired.

He's so bored.

A whip crack snaps his eyes open, Steele pulls himself from the warm fireplace. He is as he's always been, alone. 

“Hey, boy.” His owner says. A large hand pats his face. 

Steele realizes he had fallen asleep. His owner is not graying as in the dreams, Steele stretches and shakes the sleep off, shakes the terror off. His mind screams how boring that was.

Extremely boring.

Steele remembers the routine he's begun, one involving heckling the wolfdog. The one strangely absent from his dreams, the one he spent what felt like years looking for. Chasing after. Even though he'd been the savior! He was the one with Jenna all over him. But Jenna and Balto barely even talk anymore. They have kids but that is all.

Steele scratches the door, and goes outside.

He takes a long piss, marking his place in the snow. Then he walks circles making other marks. Jenna will get old and frail, like his dreams. He will not miss her. It is disgusting and a rock within his gut to think that the annoying banter of a mutt is what he will miss most.

He spits froth into the snow and leaps upon a barrel. The smell of fresh meat and sausages hits his senses, but he's looking for something more. Rosie, Jenna, Dixie... They all have passed by, he can tell likely on their way with their people.

But they are not what he wants. They are easy, mere scraps of meat and easy victories. Winning Jenna would be as easy as killing Balto. Killing Balto would be a proper battle that would test his very skills. It would snap him into life. Steele would not kill him, for the thirst of the next fight, for a taste of a rematch. 

Balto's scent is the one missing from all of this. His nose smells Jenna. Rosie. Jenna. Jenna. Jenna. Where is the oh so great wolfdog that he cannot be smelled near his beloved mate? 

As if still in his dream, Steele puffs himself up and strides through the town. Their looks don't hurt him, they are boring. Steele wants excitement.

So that's what he'll get.


End file.
